Xiaomi has patented several new designs with the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Office), and all of these designs have multiple display holes, as Xiaomi seems to be getting ready to enter the display camera hole battlefield. Xiaomi did not introduce a single smartphone with a display camera hole, but chances are that will change in the near future, even though we still do not know what phone will be the first to cross the finish line.
In any case, if you take a look at the gallery down below, you will be able to see Xiaomi’s designs, which are quite interesting, and different to basically every phone with a display hole out there. Each of these four designs have display holes on opposing sides, top-left and top-right, while one of them actually has an earpiece display hole as well (the last one).
In addition to cameras, Xiaomi also seems to have included sensors in some of these designs / sketches, so truth be said, those phones would probably look quite odd at first, as so many holes would be quite distracting, some would argue even more distracting than notches that Xiaomi has been including one some of its smartphones for the past year or so.
The first and last design that you can see in the gallery down below, actually have separate, tiny holes in the display, the second one has two large ones which are basically connected to the sides, and are like two separate side notches, and the third one has a Galaxy S10+-like holes, one on the left and on on the right.
In all honesty, these designs are somewhat weird, and it will be interesting to see if Xiaomi actually plans to introduce a phone like this, or is this just one of their patents that we’ll never see in the market. The company will, however, start releasing smartphones with display camera holes, it’s only a matter of time, though chances are we will see something similar to the HONOR View20 in terms of the design, as a single camera hole on the front is much less distracting than what you can see here.
Xiaomi Or Redmi?
It remains to be seen which of the two companies will pull the trigger first when it comes to display holes, Xiaomi or Redmi. As most of you probably already know, Redmi actually became a separate entity a while back, even though the company is still owned by Xiaomi, of course. Redmi’s CEO recently announced that the company is working on a Snapdragon 855-powered flagship, so that phone may end up sporting a display camera holes, though that’s just a wild guess, as we still do not have any info when it comes to that phone’s design or launch date.
Xiaomi, on the other hand, seems to be getting ready to announce the Xiaomi Mi 9, and if the company plans to stick to its release cycle, the device will arrive in May this year. The Xiaomi Mi 9 will sport three vertically-aligned cameras on the back, it seems, as Xiaomi’s exec did accidentally share an image of its back side, but we still do not know what its front side will look like.
Some leaks suggested that Xiaomi will opt for a waterdrop notch on the front, instead of a display camera hole, though the Mi 9’s design could go both ways, truth be said. The phone’s announcement is still a couple of months away, so who knows what Xiaomi is planning at this point. More credible leaks will probably start popping up in the near future, and give us an idea as to what to expect.